Flaming mouse burns down house ...

Sorry 'bout that - pretty easy to figure how to do things in / to someone else's house - much like spending someone else's $$$. Mice aside, I think you just described a place I would love to get my hands on. Wow - 300 years old - that sounds very cool. Is there a way to focus on / seal up the living spaces - that would be a great part of the battle won. Dirt floor in the crawl would be a real challenge. Sounds like you have a big scope and limited options. Maybe you can adopt a couple of barn cats? Good luck with the critters...

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No worries. I actually like an org called Farm Sanctuary so I don't relish killing them either. I'm ok with them outside but not in my house.

Heating "the Revolutionary Cottage" ca. 1758 in NW CT
Harman XXV in the library (keeping room) | Woodstock 201/Fireview in the family room addition
In my house, Newf hair is a condiment.

I'd like to enter my 2c on this. The brick weeping vents (those small slits in the brick joints just above the foundation) are big enough for a mouse to enter, but don't fill them, they are necessary for ventilation and maintaining a dry cavity behind the brick. If they are hollow, there are plastic brick vents available or in a pinch, use pieces of coroplast or plastic dish scrubbers to fill.

I'd like to enter my 2c on this. The brick weeping vents (those small slits in the brick joints just above the foundation) are big enough for a mouse to enter, but don't fill them, they are necessary for ventilation and maintaining a dry cavity behind the brick. If they are hollow, there are plastic brick vents available or in a pinch, use pieces of coroplast or plastic dish scrubbers to fill.

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Great point. Anything that needs airflow / vent is important to maintain.

Osburn 2200
"I'm a man, but I can change, if I have to, I guess." [Red Green]
Careful with that axe, Eugene [Pink Floyd, "Relics"]

Given the location — New Mexico — and the serious problem in the southwest with the deadly and incurable rodent-born hantavirus, I'll make no judgment, but this is a warning, I guess, to keep the door closed if you have a bonfire outside.

Otherwise, the mouse was probably simply going back to the nest in the house. Terrible situation for sure.

There's more humane ways to kill mice than throwing them in a fire,not against killing animals but do it in as humane way as possible,seems like the mouse gods got their revenge.

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Ditto. I like to lure them in and give them a last meal of peanut butter . . . before the metal snap comes down and breaks their neck in a split second . . . this is how I would like to go . . . reaching for a fork-full of medium rare prime rib with au jus . . . and then SNAP!

Ditto. I like to lure them in and give them a last meal of peanut butter . . . before the metal snap comes down and breaks their neck in a split second . . . this is how I would like to go . . . reaching for a fork-full of medium rare prime rib with au jus . . . and then SNAP!

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Some of those mice are pretty clever. I have to be quite creative & meticulous in applying the peanut butter to the bait lever as some of our mice can lick it clean without setting it off.
Wonder if they are that smart?

That should never happen. Bend the metal pin or file it down a tad. Also use chunky peanut butter and squeeze it down into the pad. They'll put more pressure on the pad to get the nuts loose. Buddy of mine actually puts peanut butter in some cut up pantyhose and ties it on there.

That's my usual method that works. I even pack it under the pad and into the rolled part. I'll have to try your first suggestion as well but it seems that it would make the hair trigger even more sensitive.

I'd like to enter my 2c on this. The brick weeping vents (those small slits in the brick joints just above the foundation) are big enough for a mouse to enter, but don't fill them, they are necessary for ventilation and maintaining a dry cavity behind the brick. If they are hollow, there are plastic brick vents available or in a pinch, use pieces of coroplast or plastic dish scrubbers to fill.

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I recently did a RE inspection, the homeowner/seller had filled all the air gaps for his wall shield with foam- to keep mice out!

There's more humane ways to kill mice than throwing them in a fire,not against killing animals but do it in as humane way as possible,seems like the mouse gods got their revenge.

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In my OP, I think I basically intimated, I would try to just report and not pass judgment, especially given the incurable and horrific deadliness of Hantavirus there, but I will admit that I had the same thoughts you did. Then I thought, well, confronted by a potentially lifethreatening situation, I don't know how I'd have dealt with it. But that story, I guess, says beware on many fronts.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmedhealth/PMH0002358/Hantavirus is carried by rodents, especially deer mice. The virus is found in their urine and feces, but it does not make the animal sick.It is believed that humans can get sick with this virus if they come in contact with contaminated dust from mice nests or droppings. You may come in contact with such dust when cleaning homes, sheds, or other enclosed areas that have been empty for a long time.There is no effective treatment for hantavirus infection involving the lungs.Expectations (prognosis)

Hantavirus is a serious infection that gets worse quickly. Lung failure can occur and may lead to death. Even with aggressive treatment, more than half of people who have this disease in their lungs die.Complications

I should have done this first, but I trusted a BBC news sidebar, thinking it was current, not to mention authentic. Apparently so did AP, and it was picked up in a nearby (for there) news outlet — the Lubbock-Avalanche Journal on Jan. 9, 2006.

Lubbock, Texas, is about 120 miles from Fort Sumner, N.M. Usually the local outlets should get good sources, but there may have been some calumny here on the part of the homeowner, according to this equally dubious source "bmoviecentral" who say Mares story changed later on.

FORT SUMNER, N.M. — A small town rumor that sparked world wide interest about a mouse burning down a house has been found to be untrue.After 81-year-old Chano Mares’s house burned down Saturday in Fort Sumner, news services picked up the quirky story.”Flaming Mouse Burns Down House” read the headline over an Associated Press story that appeared on TheNewMexicoChannel.com, for example. According to the initial report, Mares threw the critter in a pile of burning leaves near his home, but it ran back to the house on fire.A local firefighter said the mouse ran to just beneath a window and the flames spread up the window and throughout the house.All contents of the home were destroyed, but no one was injured.Interest in fires has been high lately. Unseasonably dry and windy conditions have charred more than 53,000 acres and destroyed 10 homes in southeastern New Mexico in recent weeks.The mouse story, however, has been doused by Mares.”It’s really humorous more than anything that a mouse burned down the house,” he told KOAT-TV. Thing is, the mouse was dead when it hit the burning leaves.Mares said he trapped and killed the critter and tossed it on the fire.The flames, he said, probably reached his house because they were driven by high winds.Capt. Jim Lyssy of the Fort Sumner Fire Department said the rumor probably got started because there was “a little too much excitement” at the time of the fire.Mares lost everything — and has no insurance — but the mouse story still makes him smile.”I started laughing, and I’ll be laughing from now on,” he said. “It’s silly.”

Some of those mice are pretty clever. I have to be quite creative & meticulous in applying the peanut butter to the bait lever as some of our mice can lick it clean without setting it off.
Wonder if they are that smart?

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Wrap a bit of steel wool around the trigger, then mash in a bit of peanut butter. Their teeth will catch in the steel wool, pulling on the trigger.

I get good results with a Rat Zapper, but also use snap traps since I have a lot of areas to cover. This time of year we get invaded by mice.